Boston Station doesn't renew Rush Limbaugh's Contract

[ynkeesfn82]

Entercom Broadcasting's WRKO AM 680 couldn't reach an agreement with Premier Radio Network to renew their contract to carry Rush Limbaugh. Daly XXL Media the new operators of talker WMEX AM 1510 were offered the show, but they don't want to air him either.

It's possible Limbaugh will land on a small suburban AM station such as WCAP AM 980 in Lowell or the soon-to-launch WATD AM 1460 in Brockton (sister to WATD-FM in Marshfield).

This will be the second time Rush was bounced from WRKO. Several years ago he ended up on WXKS AM 1200 in Boston which is owned by I-Heart Media the parent company of Premiere Radio Network. That moved proved to be an epic fail and that station flipped to All-Comedy and is now Leased to Bloomberg Business Radio Network.

Several years ago 96.9 FM would've been an option, but they're now running a successful format a mix of Old School Hip-Hop and R&B along with New Hip-Hop and R&B.

I also don't think I-Heart will do what they did in Pittsburgh where I-Heart is Leasing AM 1320 to run their programming including Rush after they flipped Talk 104.7 to Country last year.

There really aren't any options in Boston. This is what the Boston Radio Landscape Looks Like.

Greater Boston Media:
92.9 Adult Alternative
96.9 Old School Hip-Hop and R&B/New Hip-Hop and R&B
102.5 Country
105.7 Classic Hits
106.7 Adult Contemporary

I-Heart Radio:
94.5 Hip-Hop
101.7 Country
107.9 Top 40
1200 AM Leased to Bloomberg Business Radio
1430 AM Spanish "MIA"

Entercom Media:
93.7 Sports
97.7/107.3 Rock
680 AM Talk (The station that's dropping Rush)
850 AM ESPN Radio (Mostly)

CBS Radio:
98.5 Sports
100.7 Classic Rock
103.3 Top 40
104.1 Hot Adult Contemporary
1030 AM All News

Salem Media:
590 AM Christian Programming (Teaching Mostly)
950 AM Christian Programming/Irish Music/some talk (mostly shows from Salem)
1150 AM Spanish Christian Programming

Gois Broadcasting:
890 AM Spanish Hits

Other Stations:
1060 AM Catholic
1090 AM Leased to Radio China International
1260 AM Radio Disney (Station is still For Sale)
1330 AM Leased to Various Foreign Language Programmers
1510 AM New Talk Station (Won't carry Rush)
1600 AM Leased to Various Foreign Language Programmers

Suburban Stations:
1360 AM Leased to Foreign Language Programmers
1470 AM Leased to Foreign Language Programmers

[TheFugitive]

What sort of signal do the Salem stations put out?
They could flip one of them to The Answer talk format as they did in Pittsburgh.
And if they do, they'd jump at a chance to land Rush if he's available.

Or they could buy the Radio Disney station to do this.

[ynkeesfn82]

What sort of signal do the Salem stations put out?
They could flip one of them to The Answer talk format as they did in Pittsburgh.
And if they do, they'd jump at a chance to land Rush if he's available.

Or they could buy the Radio Disney station to do this.

All 3 Salem Stations are 5000 watts during the day. Salem owned 1260 (also 5000 watts) before it was sold to Hibernia which owned several Radio Disney Stations before Radio Disney bought out Hibernia.

[Hudsons81]

What sort of signal do the Salem stations put out?
They could flip one of them to The Answer talk format as they did in Pittsburgh.
And if they do, they'd jump at a chance to land Rush if he's available.

Or they could buy the Radio Disney station to do this.

All 3 Salem Stations are 5000 watts during the day. Salem owned 1260 (also 5000 watts) before it was sold to Hibernia which owned several Radio Disney Stations before Radio Disney bought out Hibernia.

Do the Salem stations at least provide decent coverage to Boston proper?

[ynkeesfn82]

Do the Salem stations at least provide decent coverage to Boston proper?

AM 590:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WEZE&service=AM&status=L&hours=U

AM 950 Daytime:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WROL&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

AM 1150 Daytime:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WWDJ&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

[TheFugitive]

Those Boston stations sure like to broadcast to ships at sea, eh?  ::)

[ynkeesfn82]

Those Boston stations sure like to broadcast to ships at sea, eh?  ::)

That's the problem in New England. The now defunct WALE 990 in Greenville, Rhode Island was another. 50,000 watts they used to brag to potential clients. - Yeah most of the 50,000 watts went out into the Atlantic Ocean. During the end of that station's life they ran a Latino Music Format. I guess the fish swimming in the ocean liked Latino Music.  :D

[ynkeesfn82]

It's possible Limbaugh will land on a small suburban AM station such as WCAP AM 980 in Lowell or the soon-to-launch WATD AM 1460 in Brockton (sister to WATD-FM in Marshfield).

It has been confirmed on another radio message board that the soon to launch WATD AM 1460 in Brockton WILL NOT be adding RUSH to its line-up. Station owner Ed Perry says the new WATD AM 1460 will be programmed with a hyper-local format similar to WATD-FM in Marshfield.

[ynkeesfn82]

Salem has bought WMKI AM 1260. Will it become The Answer Talk format and will they pick up Rush? Stay tuned. They paid $500,000 for it. Interesting if they do The Answer on 1260 because they previous had that format on 1150 and it didn't work out so they flipped 1150 to Spanish Religion. (Back then they weren't using The Answer branding on their talk stations).

Salem also got the Disney station in Dallas for $3 million.

[TheFugitive]

They paid $1 mil. for the Disney station here in Pittsburgh.
Interesting considering that Salem's recent financials have not been that great.

Rumor has it that the reason WRKO is dumping Rush is that his big up-front rights fee
(rumored to be $500K in the Boston market) had made carrying the show barely profitable
(supposedly last year they only sold $585K worth of ads all year, meaning that a local
show with a fraction of the ratings could still potentially earn more profit).

Would Salem really pay as much for Rush's rights as they did for the entire station?

Lots of people wondering what Limbaugh will do next year when his contract runs out.
Rework his business model, or retire?

[ynkeesfn82]

Rumor has it that the reason WRKO is dumping Rush is that his big up-front rights fee
(rumored to be $500K in the Boston market) had made carrying the show barely profitable
(supposedly last year they only sold $585K worth of ads all year, meaning that a local
show with a fraction of the ratings could still potentially earn more profit).

The rights to The Boston Redsox are up at the end of this season, so RKO's parent company wants to make sure they'll continue to air the games for years to come on their sister station Sports Radio 93.7 WEEI-FM. They paid a boatload of money 10 (or so years ago) for the rights. 10 years ago things were very different. There was no other viable alternative for the SOX. (Back then they were on WRKO for a year then switched back to WEEI then on 850 AM). These days they have a viable competitor in 98.5 The Sports Hub WBZ-FM.

[ynkeesfn82]

Premiere Radio Network is part of IHeartMedia and it's looking likely that IHeartMedia is going to blow-up Spanish MIA 1430 in favor of a talk format and the new Talk 1430 will carry Rush in Boston. 1430 has a very poor signal. It's going to fail miserably. Their sister station at 1200 which has a more powerful signal was talk several years ago with Rush and it failed miserably.

1430's Daytime Signal: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WKOX&service=AM&status=L&hours=D